Hold Me Tight Read online

  His eyes flashed down at me. He didn't answer, but I knew what he was saying without him saying it. He was good at everything.

  I knew how good he was.

  Heat that had no business being there radiated outward from my core. I dragged my eyes away from his.

  We're friends, I chanted to myself as I ignored the way his leg brushed my thigh as he moved me. That was just a one time thing. It's not happening again. It'll never happen again.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, ignoring the way he seemed to know my body as well as I did, ignoring the skillful way he moved me.

  We are just friends. We've known each other forever. He's my brother's friend. He's just familiar.

  We're just using each other.

  I settled back into that thought with a sigh of relief. "You're just using me to look good in front of your co-workers." I craned my neck up to whisper in his ear. "Show off."

  "You want to use me now?" he murmured against my cheek.

  I pulled back. His eyes looker darker than they had any right to be. I licked my lips. "I just might."

  His lips caught mine. There was no other word for the way he laid claim to them. His kiss was slow, confident. In perfect control. He moved his thigh between my legs. My breath caught as he pressed upward.

  I pulled away from the kiss and stared at him.

  He couldn't have meant it.

  He held my gaze, then pressed his hand into the small of my back as he lifted his knee.

  He meant it.

  I closed my eyes. Heat gathered at my center, then throbbed lower.

  He pressed down harder at the base of my spin when I bore down on his thigh. I exhaled sharply.

  "Everyone is watching," he whispered, then moved his thigh again. Up. Then down. Rubbing me.

  "Jesus," I gasped. "Jesus, Rett!"

  He pulled back, leaving me panting. "I'm going to take you home." His eyes looked different. He looked different. His voice dripped with heavy promise. "Come with me."

  Everything I knew about myself screamed at me to reel it in. Dial it back. Smooth it over. Make nice.

  But there was something so intoxicating about letting him tell me what to do. So freeing to let me lead me. There was such... power in giving in to him.

  So when I opened my mouth, the word that came out was, "Yes."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Everett

  I was going way too fast on these dark roads.

  But what else could I do when Brynn's hand was on my thigh?

  We were ten minutes away. Five minutes. My heart jackhammered in my chest. Every nerve ending was on fire. "Your place or mine," I asked her in a strangled gasp.

  Her breathing was tight, and I swore I heard her heart beating. "Mine is closer," she murmured.

  A firework of triumph went off in my brain. I put my hand on her leg and just held it there for a moment, letting her get used to it, enjoying the heat that radiated from her skin. She had the most amazing skin, peachy and golden, but so responsive.

  Slowly, I let my hand climb up her thigh. Her skin tightened into goosebumps under my fingertips. I could feel the soft, downy hairs on her upper thighs, marking the place where she's stopped shaving. I swallowed against my tightening throat, trying like hell to keep my eyes on the road before I killed us both. But the throbbing in my groan made me slide my hand higher to the crease of her thigh. Then brush against the fabric of her panties.

  She drew in a sharp breath. But she didn't stop me. So I kept going. That's what I do. I push.

  "You're so wet." I slid my finger under her panties and a low groan escaped my mouth. "So warm and wet, Brynn. Fuck..."

  I wrenched the wheel to keep from driving us into a field of wildflowers, but I didn't move my hand from her searing heat. I could feel her watching me.

  Without thinking, I moved my finger over the tight pearl of her clit. I'd tasted her that night in the closet. But I hadn't seen her. I could only imagine the way she'd look spread open before me.

  Frustrated, I moved my finger faster. Her breath caught in a startled little gasp. I spun the wheel and sent us sliding into her street.

  We skidded to a halt at the bottom of her driveway. In a wild rush, I threw the car into park and shoved my door open.

  I had every intention of grabbing her from the passenger seat and carrying her straight through the open door to her bedroom.

  The open door.

  "What the fuck?"

  Before she could say anything, I sprinted up the lawn. "Brynn, you stay there. You stay right there," I ordered her.

  She stepped behind her car door and peered at me with terrified eyes.

  The door stood half open and light flooded the living room window. I'd seen her turn off that light and then lock the door with my very own eyes.

  I had my cell phone out and dialed nine, then one, when my foot crunched down on something.

  Shards of glass were scattered across the porch. The window just above the doorknob had been punched out.

  I froze and backed up. Stepping off the porch, I bent down and felt for a weapon. My fingers closed around one of the decorative rocks in her garden.

  Something heavy slammed into my back.

  I wheeled around, swinging the rock at my assailant and missed braining Brynn with it by a fraction of an inch.

  "What the hell?" she gasped. But she wasn't looking at me. She had no idea that I'd almost sent her to the hospital. "What happened?"

  "I told you to stay in the car." I took a deep breath and tried to calm my ragged, jangling nerves. For her sake.

  She took a step backward, but didn't retreat. "Someone broke in," she said dully.

  "Looks like it." I kept my voice low.

  "What do I do?"

  Fuck. She was terrified. I dropped the rock and wrapped my arms around her tight, wishing I had a blanket to keep her from shivering. I could feel her heart beating frantically.

  Slowly I maneuvered her away from the broken glass, away from the invasion of the sanctity of her home. "You don't have to do anything," I told her. "I'm right here. I've got it."

  Her eyes were still wide with shock. "What are you going to do?"

  "We have no idea if they're still in there." I tilted her chin up. Her darting eyes settled on mine and she took a deep, shuddering breath. "You're good. You're fine. You're safe. Just do what I say, and stay behind me," I told her. "I'm calling the police."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Brynn

  Nick Butler was much more serious this time. He took my report with a grim face and a lot of official-looking stomping around.

  The thief, whoever he was, didn't seem to have a reason for breaking in. Nothing was missing. Nothing was even out of place. I thought it was very strange, and Nick agreed.

  He warned me to call him at any time I felt unsafe. He told me he was worried for me. It wasn't safe to be a woman all alone.

  It didn't help to know he was worried for me. I just felt more victimized by it. When he pulled away, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Once he was gone, I suddenly became aware of how much the night had cooled off. I clutched my arms across my chest and shivered. My teeth started to chatter.

  "Are you okay?" Everett moved to my side. His voice was soft and low, and strangely soothing.

  I tried to work my lips into the shape of a smile. "Yes, I'm fine." My voice sounded false in my ears.

  I needed him to stop looking at me so I could pull myself together again. Everything was fine. I'd made a police report. There was no damage other than the window and I was okay.

  So why couldn’t I stop shaking?

  "Brynn." Rett's voice cut through the storm of thoughts in my head. "Would you like me to stay?"

  I turned to him. I wanted to say no thanks, I was fine, it was no big deal, no need for all these dramatics.

  But the word that came out instead was, "Yes."

  He nodded, then wrapped his arm around my waist. He led me into my house so assuredly, that
I could have closed my eyes and let him do the work. Rett entered my house like he'd been there a zillion times before. He turned in the narrow front hallway and pushed me gently up the stairs. I wasn't going to think about the fact that we were heading into my bedroom. I wasn't going to think about how awkward this was.

  With him leading me, I didn't have to think at all.

  He pressed open the door to my bedroom, then gestured for me to enter first like a consummate gentleman.

  Mr. Stevens stood up from his nest of covers on my bed and stretched, then made a hopeful beeline down the stairs towards his food bowl.

  Rett shut the door behind him.

  "Do you want me to stay?" he asked again, once we were both inside.

  Once again, I tried to summon the will to say that yes, I was fine. That he should go.

  But the second he took his hands off me, that fear came surging back. "Stay," I said in a ragged exhale

  "Brynn," he said. Had he always said my name with that same intensity? "I'm asking you. What do you want?"

  I closed my eyes, remembering the assured way he'd touched me in the car.

  Remembering that moment in the closet.

  What did I want? Was he going to make me say it?

  I opened my eyes. "Put your hands on me." Hating how bossy I sounded, I inhaled sharply. "Please."

  When his hand slid around my waist, I felt the calm of letting go. His fingers on my skin were a sedative and a stimulant all at once.

  "My hands are on you," he said, and his lips were so close. "But you want more, don't you?"

  I nodded.

  "No," he said, barely audible, his breath against my ear. "I don't think you want. I think you need."

  I nodded again. "I need you to hold me. I need you to kiss me," I said, unsure of exactly whose voice it was that was saying these things so directly. "Make me stop thinking," I begged.

  His hands were sliding up my thighs. "Kiss me," he ordered.

  I licked my lips and went up onto my tiptoes, straining for his lips. As we kissed, he worked his thigh between my legs, just as it had been on the dance floor. But this time I ground myself into him, not even hearing about being such a wanton slut. I moaned into his mouth. "Do you find me useful to have around?" he asked, throwing my words at me, his lips curling into a smile against mine.

  "Well," I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck. "When you're good at something..."

  There was the curve of a smug smile at the corner of his mouth. "Just good?"

  I'd already lost whatever dignity I possessed, so I figured why lie? "The best," I moaned.

  He made an appreciative little humming noise against my forehead. "We fucked in a cramped closet," he murmured, brushing his lips across my forehead and down to my ear. "You were barely able to move. You liked that?"

  What could I say about how that had made me feel? To be pressed between his body and the wall? To be held, cradled, and completely under his control? How could I explain the strange way it calmed me, soothed me, the way it made me feel completed? Like the last missing pieces of my own personal puzzle sliding into place. "I did," I groaned, arching against him. He obliged me by pressing his hands into the small of my back, pushing me down against his thigh. "I did like that."

  This time his noise of appreciation was more like a growl, a rough, dangerous noise that rolled right through me. There was a caged up animal inside of Rett, I could see it now. Until now he'd only let me see that buttoned-up exterior, the good Boy Scout. But he wasn't all he seemed.

  And I was desperate to know more.

  He snaked his hand around my waist then walked us both backwards. I hit the wall with a gasp, and then gasped again when he caught my wrists and pinned them over my head. Then he stepped back.

  The way his eyes flicked upward to take in the sight of him overpowering me told me everything I needed to know about how much he liked it. And the way my body melted told me everything I needed to know about how much I liked it too.

  "How far do you want me to go?" he asked, leaning down and catching my lower lip in his teeth.

  I shivered. What I wanted him to do, and what I wanted to ask for were two different things. The way he had me trembling just from the feel of his body pressed up against mine — pinning me to the wall, pressing me with his weight — frightened me.

  "I don't know," I said, and that was a bald-faced lie, but I didn't want him to know how badly I wanted this.

  "If I touch you, right here," he asked, sliding his fingers along my thigh, just high enough to make me arch upward against where he cupped me, "would you say no?"

  "No!" I gasped, going up on my tip toes, urging him on.

  He made a sound in the back of his throat. The light was on this time, I could see him, and I could see how his eyes were almost black when he looked at me. "What if I touch you here?" he said, sliding the tip of his finger along my seam just over the fabric of my panties. "Would you say no?"

  I was nearly out of my mind, so I didn't even know what to say. "Yes!" I gasped. "I mean, no!"

  "You want more?"

  I could feel his body straining with the force of holding back.

  I wanted whatever it was he was trying to keep tamped down

  "I want more," I told him and blushed immediately.

  But he wasn't looking at my face. He was looking down, watching his own finger as it slid lightly over my clit. Lightly, so lightly, too lightly. I moaned, and slid downward, or tried to, but his hand still had me pinned.

  "I'll give you more," Rett rasped, bending down to nip at my neck. His lips traced a line up to my ear lobe. He took the soft flesh between his teeth and nipped down just enough to make me gasp before moving his fingers faster and making me gasp for a whole different reason. "I'll give you exactly as much as you want. You just have to tell me you want it."

  "I want it," I begged. I craved that edge of danger he was promising me.

  And he knew it too, by the way he hissed a sharp, indrawn breath. His fingers, suddenly rough, ripped the fabric of my panties aside and I bit my lip as he slid one inside of me. I squirmed against it, still pinned by his hand, wanting to move, to arch, to grind, but he held me fast, drawing it out, his thumb finding the small button of my clit and moving in slow circles in time with his thrusting finger. "I love how wet you get for me. I love how much you need this."

  Did I need it? I wasn't sure what I needed. Except more.

  With a yelp, I rocked forward, but he lodged his thigh between my legs, his finger still moving. I was pinned and there was nothing to do but feel. I hissed and it was the last sound I heard before every sense filled up with Rett.

  "You're using me to get off," he rumbled, and I wanted to protest but it was so true. No one had ever made me feel this way before. "So I want you to get off. I'm going to watch you come. When I say so."

  "Oh God," I moaned, rising up to my toes.

  He pulled back his fingers, making me whine. "No, not yet."

  "So bossy," I hissed.

  "You have no idea." I bit my lip as his finger moved faster. "You're going to come when I tell you to come, and not one second sooner."

  "You fucking..." I hissed, my head lolling to the side. He was dragging me all the way to the pinnacle. Every nerve ending in my body ached for release, every cell in my skin vibrated in unison.

  "Do you want to come?" he asked.

  "Yes, yes..."

  "Say please."

  "Please!" I gasped, glaring at him.

  He shook his head slightly, his lips turning up in a grin. "Please what?"

  "Please let me..."

  He licked his lips, his eyes never darker, and with a growl that I had no choice but to obey, he said. "Come for me."

  I felt my whole body bear down, and then suddenly burst open. Fireworks exploded in unison along my spine and I screamed a renegade yelp of surprise, of relief, and above all pleasure.

  Rett's fingers moved faster, not letting up, not letting me rest. Quick on the heels
of the first orgasm, the second one overtook me, washing over like waves on a beach. If he hadn't been holding me up, I would have slid to the floor, utterly boneless.

  But his hands, his forehead on mine, his fingers inside me, his knee propping me up, they all held me there, not until I was done. But until he was.

  "Good girl," he said, his voice still thick with that hidden danger. When he slid his fingers from between my legs, I arched against his leg, already ready for more.

  He kissed me, and slid his sodden finger to my mouth. "You ever tasted yourself?"

  I shook my head. Who was this?

  "Lick," he ordered me.

  And to my surprise — one surprise after another — I did what he told me.

  He nodded. Then took his fingers from my mouth, brushed them against his lips, then licked them clean. "I think you taste as good as you did in the closet," he informed me. "But I'll need to lick you now. Just to be sure."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Everett

  She was scared and vulnerable, so at first I'd backed off. Taking her inside, helping her get up to her bedroom, that had all been completely innocent. I wasn't about to take advantage of her when she was scared. It wouldn't be right. That's what separates men from assholes, and I'm a man. Of that there is no question.

  But I'm also only a man. And when Brynn confessed how much she wanted me, how often she thought about that night in the closet, fuck, the way she felt when I pressed her against the wall, it awakened the rough, ragged thing inside of me. That thing inside of me that I always kept chained up below.

  How badly did I want to show it to her right now? But I held back, pushed it down and instead I let her use me for what she needed. I could feel the heat of her pussy through the fabric of my slacks — my God she was so hot and ready. I put my lips to her neck, and my fingers inside of her, then I held her fast and I made her come.

  Her eyelids fluttered, only the whites showing for a second as her lips parted. I felt the muscles in her back go taut, and then she came with a sharp inhale and it was fucking incredible. And I knew I needed to see it again.